Kratos, the God of War, the God killer............
He is the epitomy of badass.

The events of GoW 1:
Kratos, born in Sparta, became the captain of a rapidly growing Spartan army. However he and his Spartan army were no match for the barbarian tribes. Being outnumbered and overpowered, his army was losing the battle. Kratos, about to be killed by the barbarians' leader, pledged himself to Ares, the God of War, in exchange for victory. The god accepted and wiped out the barbarians, giving Kratos the Blades of Chaos as a sign of his servitude and used his weapons to slay the barbarian leader.

Kratos served Ares loyally for some time. However, Ares later tricked him into killing his wife and child and as a result was cursed to wear their ashes for all time, labeled the "Ghost of Sparta" soon after. Grief-stricken, Kratos was afterwards haunted by terrible nightmares of the deaths of his family. However, the Gods offered Kratos forgiveness and immortality for his deeds in return for servitude to them, carrying out their commands for ten years.

After killing the sea monster known as The Hydra, Kratos got his chance to seek his revenge on the God of War and finally be free of the terrible nightmares that haunted him when Athena told Kratos that the gods will forgive his past if he prevents Ares from destroying Athens, ordered by Athena to seek out Pandora's box in order to help him destroy Ares. Following an Athenian Oracle's instructions, Kratos traversed the Desert of Lost Souls and found Pandora's Temple atop the back of the Titan Cronos. He made his way through the temple and retrieved Pandora's Box. Ares, sensing Kratos' success, hurled a huge pillar towards Pandora's Temple. The pillar impales and kills Kratos sending him to Hades. During the fall to the river Styx, Kratos is able to lay hold on some bones and then escapes the clutches of Hades. Kratos escaped from Hades and returned to Athens, killing Ares with the power of Pandora's Box. Although his past was forgiven, the gods could not relieve Kratos of his nightmares. Kratos attempted suicide, only to be stopped by Athena as she gave him Ares' place on Olympus as the new God of War.

The events of GoW 2:

As the God of War, Kratos continued his conquests, resulting in Sparta's campaign over Greece. Zeus, weary of Kratos' impertinence, tricked him into relinquishing his godly power and killed him, in an elaborate plan that involved bringing the Colossus of Rhodes to life.

Kratos escaped from Hades with the help of the Titan Gaia, who told him to seek out the Sisters of Fate so that he may have his revenge on Zeus. After a brief visit to Typhon's lair, Kratos safely arrived on the island. After encountering numerous adversaries and allies, Kratos defeated the Sisters of Fate. He used their mirrors to return to the moment of his death. Before Kratos could kill Zeus, Athena intervened and took the blow instead. Dying, she revealed the truth of Zeus' intentions, explained that Zeus is Kratos' father, and told Kratos that Zeus must live for the sake of Olympus. However, Kratos did not heed her wishes, saying that the time of the Gods has come to an end.

Kratos traveled back in time to the Great Titan War and took the Titans back to the present. As the game closed, he led them on an assault on Mount Olympus.

Powers/Abilities/Weapons:
Being the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Kratos has the powers of a demi-god which are vast superhuman strength and durability as well as being fairly swift and agile, but his powers were not realized by Kratos until a later time. An example of Kratos' massive strength is when he was facing the Hydra. He was able to impale the Queen Hydra's head on the mast in spite of it's own great strength, and was also capable of preventing Atlas the Titan (by far the largest of the Titans) from crushing him between his thumb and forefinger and is strong enough to overpower the ruler of the gods Zeus in strength clashes. During his campaign against Ares in the first God of War game, he was bestowed various and powerful godly abilities.

Poseidon's Rage: A magic power that allows Kratos to attack all enemies around him with a storm/electrical based power.
Medusa's Gaze: Though not a true godly power, he can use the decapitated gorgon Medusa's head to turn enemies to stone.
Zeus' Fury: A magic that allows Kratos to summon bolts of lightning to shoot at enemies.
Army of Hades: Kratos can summon the invincible souls of the dead to attack enemies. Even Ares himself could not withstand them.
Rage of the Gods: Kratos's most powerful magic. He can call upon the powers of the gods to become stronger and faster. If the Blades of Chaos are at their maximum upgrade level, Kratos is also granted infinite magic.
Robbed of his godly powers at the beginning of God of War II, Kratos received new ones bestowed to him by the Titans.

Typhon's Bane: A magical attack that takes the form of a bow that allows Kratos to fire wind elemental projectiles and create a small tornado to decimate enemies.
Cronos' Rage: Allows Kratos to place lightning based orbs to attack enemies with and explode when finished. It usually stuns smaller enemies for the duration of the attack. It can place a maximum of three at a time. But more power and orbs can be summoned in time.
Head of Euryale: Essentially the God of War II version of "Medusa's Gaze". Now Kratos is able to fire blasts that can affect multiple enemies and can also move while holding the giant Gorgon's head.
Atlas Quake: Kratos slams the ground with his fists and send a powerful wave of earth in all directions and cracks off boulders projectiles in the air.
Rage of the Titans: Similar to the "Rage of the Gods" power; he takes less damage than normal. Kratos become faster, stronger, and after twenty-five hit combo plus, he can summon a tornado of flame that destroys all enemies around him. Unlike Rage of the Gods, Kratos can switch off the power if he no longer needs it and it can be activated without being full.
Aside from the playable magics used in the games, Kratos also had many other powers when he was a god. He's able to manipulate his size to extremes comparable to Ares,the former god of war. Kratos, being the new God of War, possesses the same powers Ares had. Other powers used by Kratos are the former powers of the Fates, including the manipulation of time and destiny. Kratos, at full power, can be summed up to a near-omnipotent being possibly even more powerful than his father, Zeus.

Weapons:

Blades of Chaos: Kratos's most used weapons. These weapons are two large, falchion-like blades attached to chains which wind around Kratos' wrists and are seared into his arms at the ends.
Blade of Artemis: A large, powerful, but cumbersome sword. Once used by the goddess Artemis to slay a Titan.
Pandora's Box: While not a true "weapon", it is often said that it is "the most powerful weapon a mortal can wield". Pandora's Box is a large, golden box that has the power to make a mortal powerful enough to kill a god by making them grow to towering heights.
Blade of the Gods: A massive sword that Kratos used to slay Ares. Seen earlier in God of War when Kratos used it as a bridge.
Athena's Blades: A gift from Athena after defeating Ares, they are golden version of the Blades of Chaos.
God of War II Weapons:

Athena's Blades: They lost their golden tint at the start of God of War II and gain a red-gold tint as Kratos levels them up.
Barbarian Hammer: A large hammer with the ability to summon the souls of the dead and emit a large wave of energy.
Spear of Destiny: A spear covered in purple crytals. This spear has the ability to use its crystals as projectiles, make an explosive crystal, and alter enemies into bombs if hit with the crystal end of the spear.
Blade of Olympus: The legendary sword that was created by Zeus to end the Great War with the Titans. This blade has the ability to fire energy projectiles and absorb power from any source.

Kratos is a spartan with never ending rage and anger consuming him and those around him. Born with overwhelming physical power and a lust for carnage, Kratos found himself commanding a force of a thousand spartans very early in his life rampaging around sparta and conquering all in their wake. he claimed it to be for the "glory of sparta" but it was, as his wife (the only person who didn't fear him) who pointed out to him that it was only for himself. She tried to passify his bloodlust but it all fell on deaf ears. Kratos would have his way.
It was in a fateful battle with a overwhelming number of barbarians, however, that crumbled the wave of the Spartans. The result was an uber pwnage of the spartans (300 my @$$!) and Kratos himself was about to have his skull smashed to bits by the huge barbarian leader. with defeat an imminent certainity and the end of his marvellous career and life at hand Kratos called for the God of War "ARES" to save him.
Kratos: Ares! Destroy my enemy! and my life is yours!
these words would haunt Kratos for the rest of his life. His fate was sealed and though Ares kept his word and granted him victory he was now--to put it mildly--his "war *****". Ares made Kratos his ultimate warrior granting him the blades of chaos: swords forged in the flames of hades itself with chains that were seared to his flesh. Granted with power and his bloodlust further boosted, Kratos was now an animal unleashed.
Loyal and powerful, Kratos led the spartans at ares' command and within a short while he was pwning all of Greece. It was, however, in one city (olympus or athens...can't remember) that Kratos, in blind rage, butchered everyone in the city and the sacred temple. However, when his rage cooled down he realized what he had done.......his wife and daughter were among those people at the temple. Realizing that no longer could he serve the god who took away everything from him, Kratos swore vengeance. the God of War will pay. but his actions didn't go unnoticed by the gods and the ashes of his wife and daughter were now etched on his body forever....a constant reminder of his horrible deeds.
For redemption, Kratos fell in service of other gods (mainly athena) in whose service he remained for the next 10 years of his life....with the promise of forgiveness made to him by the gods. Ares himself was starting a rebellion against the gods and was plundering Athens...a city sacred to Athena.
there began a quest for redemption, revenge and extremely violent pwnage that puts violent2dope to shame. Carving a path of destruction Kratos pwned the crap out of everyone....and after utilizing the pandora's box (an object that gave kratos the size of a god), Kratos pwned Ares.
with his tasks done and his vengeance satisfied, Kratos asked for the vengeance.